This invention relates to cabinet scrapers utilized in woodworking.
Cabinet scrapers have long been utilized in woodworking for removing small amounts of wood or finish from work surfaces, typically for the purpose of smoothing such surfaces. Such scrapers may be fabricated of an appropriate grade of steel in a variety of shapes, but are typically approximately five or six inches wide, approximately 21/2 inches tall and on the order of 0.015 to 0.042 inches thick. Scrapers are prepared for use by forming a "hook" on one or more working edges. In use they are drawn or pushed along a workpiece while held at an angle to the workpiece and slightly bowed in the direction of travel.
While cabinet scrapers can be used with great success while holding them with the user's fingers, doing so is tiring and, particularly in the case of thicker scrapers, requires substantial strength and stamina to keep the scraper bowed. Additionally, friction between the scraper and work surface heats the scraper to an uncomfortable temperature that is sometimes high enough to burn the user's thumbs. Finally, under normal circumstances two hands are required to use a conventional cabinet scraper.
Perhaps in part because of these problems, scraper "planes" have also long been used in which a scraping blade is held in a plane-like or spoke shave-like holder that has a sole which bears against the work surface. The width of the scraper blade used in such devices is typically no more than approximately three inches, and the blade is typically bowed with a thumbscrew that bears against the back of the blade. Such scraper planes are expensive and cannot be used successfully in certain applications because of, among other reasons, the presence of the sole, narrow blade width and tendency for the blade to chatter. The angle between the scraper blade and sole (and, therefore, workpiece surface) is fixed in many such devices. While it is adjustable in others, such adjustment is not possible during use of any such devices. By contrast, a hand-held scraper blade can simply be tilted a different amount during use, even during a single scraping stroke.
A shop-fabricated fixture for holding a cabinet scraper has previously been suggested in Shop Notes, issue 3, (1992) at page 26. In this device, which is basically a simple block of wood, a single screw in direct contact with the scraper bows the blade, which is fixed to the block of wood by one wood screw and washer at each end of blade. This device does not support a substantial portion of the ends of the scraper, is difficult to adjust, and frequently chatters in use.
There is, therefore, a need for a cabinet scraper holder superior to the hand held methods and previously known fixtures.